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News of Skiing

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.
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MIDDLEFIELD, Conn., Feb. 3—While almost everyone in the ski country has been wondering whether winter has come and gone, owners of the Powder Ridge Ski Center in the central precincts of the Nutmeg State have been wondering whether a $125,000 investment will continue collecting rust. Herman and Louis Zemel, operators of the local resort, have been seeking for 18 months to have a four‐place, 2,650‐foot long chaill lift installed at their busy ski area. They've run into legal body blocks by some of the local citizenry.

“Some people apparently are incensed over the aborted rock festival we booked for Powder Ridge two summers ago and which received bad publicity,” said Herman Zemel today. “Now they're maintaining the new four place chair lift will cause unbearable automobile congestion on local roads.”

As a result, the Zemels have been enmeshed in legal action involving zoning. A permit for the new chair lift finally was granted last summer by the town's Zoning Board. But some residents obtained a temporary injunction.

The matter now is in he hands of a Hartford judge. His decision is expected soon. If he rules in the Zemels’ favor, they will have the new lift operating in a week since the only phase of the installation job left is to suspend the chairs—about 100 of them—from the cables, which were strung last fall.

“We've done everything to satisfy the town short of building it a new town hall,” Zemel said. “We've put in a special road to handle any traffic overflow and we've installed special parts on the lift that will guarantee safety as well as Squeakless rides.”

The Zemels this season also installed a powerful Hedco snowmaking machine that eliminates the need for noisy compressors. The machine can turn 250 gallons of water into snow every minute.

“Thanks to the Hedco we still have excellent conditions here today,” said Herman. “But we're still not happy. After all, what good are fourplace chairs if they spend the winter resting on the ground?”

Upper New York and most of Vermont were on a major snow alert today as a result of a storm said to be working its way north from Cape Hatteras. Yesterday a storm from the West dumped as much as six inches on southern Vermont resorts … Air France has booked 4,000 Americans this winter on reduced package plans for visits to Val d'Isere and Chamonix … There is no ski jumping action at Bear Mountain this weekend. The scene is shifting to nearby Rosendale, N.Y., where more than 45 space riders will take part in a tournament on Sunday.